Professor Andrea Hilary Brand FRS

Herchel Smith Professor of Molecular Biology, Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute and Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge

Andrea Brand is distinguished for her pioneering work on the development of the nervous system. Using Drosophila as a model organism, and employing the most sophisticated and innovative live imaging techniques, she has explained how cell fate determinants become localised to one side of a cell, allowing neural precursors to divide asymmetrically in a stem cell-like fashion. In earlier work Dr Brand characterised the first transcriptional silencer and originated the GAL4 system for targeted gene expression during development. The GAL4 system has been adapted for use in many other model organisms; it has had a major influence on developmental biology.